Treeless in Seattle, and a chance to speak out

Saving the urban forest is one of the key priorities of environmentalists this legislative session, and a topic I wrote about in this story. Since then, I’ve continued to get emails from folks worried about tree removals in neighborhoods within and outside of Seattle, which was part of my focus.

A tree “protected” on a construction site in Seattle’s View Ridge neighborhood.

The frustration seems to have its roots with Seattle officials, whether it’s the failure of the Department of Planning and Development to enforce its own tree protection laws, the city taking down trees on public property such as parks and street trees (though the park trees have to be replaced 2:1), or the lack of rules to protect trees on private property. Some of the larger projects rankling residents include a development between Nickerson Street and the the Ship Canal at the north slope of Queen Anne and a multi-block project north of North 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue North.

There’s going to be a meeting Thursday at the downtown library to talk about Seattle “green infrastructure” with Councilman Tom Rasmussen and a board member of the Seattle Parks Foundation.

City leaders claim that the tree canopy declined by about half since the 1970s, from about 40 percent to 18 percent now, though people question the veracity of those numbers and whether the tree cover images are comparable. I’m not sure if it matters.